Skyrim Walkthrough: The Golden Claw Quest

As you enter the Riverwood Trader, Camilla and the shopkeeper are having an argument. When you talk to the shopkeeper, Lucan Valerius, he tells you that he is having some problems with bandits. There was a break in. The robbers were interested in only one thing. An ornament, solid gold, in the shape of a dragon claw. Tell him you will help him get the claw back. He has some coin coming in and offers it to you as a reward if you recover the claw.

He tells you that to find those bandits, you want to head to bleak falls barrow, North west of town. Camilla offers herself as a guide, although Lucan insists she accompanies you only to the edge of town.

Open your quest journal to see info on this quest:The Golden ClawLucan Valerius in Riverwood is offering me a gold reward if I retrieve his antique golden claw, stolen by bandits camped in Bleak Falls Barrow.

Objectives:Retrieve the Golden Claw.

Camilla leaves the shop, you should follow her, although first you should make room in your inventory and get some gold by selling some items to the shopkeeper. Ask him what he has to sale to open the Barter menu. Items above the divider line belong to the vendor. Items below the line belong to you. To buy or sell an item, select it and press E.

After you are done Bartering, leave the shop and find Camilla waiting for you outside. She will tell you that you have to go through town and across the bridge to get to Bleak Barrow. The thieves must be mad for hiding out there, as the crypts there are filled with rats, trolls, and who knows what else. She will also mention that it's strange that the robbers stole only that artifact, when there are lots of things in the store worth just as much. Lucan found the golden claw a year ago when he opened the shop, and he never told Camilla exactly how he got it. Follow her. She will lead you to the bridge on the edge of town. The path to the Northwest up the mountains will lead you to Bleak Falls Barrow. Camilla will now turn back and return to her brother, Lucan.

Cross the bridge, then take a left turn and follow the road up the mountain to the NW. You can check your map every now and them to get bearings on your position.

On the way, you will pass through a tower guarded by bandits. Defeat the bandits and climb up the tower to find a chest full of gold.

Keep going towards your waypoint, and you will reach the crypts of Bleak Falls Barrow. Climb up some stairs and defeat the bandits guarding the entrance. Go to the door and enter the Bleak Falls Temple. Explore the entry hall, kill the enemies there and picklock the chest for some gold. head down the stairs past some cobwebs. Loot the Burial urns for a little more gold.

Continue working your way to the bottom of the crypt. You will get to a chamber with some pillars in it. This is a PILLAR PUZZLE

There are three pillars, and each pillar has three sides with a different animal symbol on each side: Snake, Bird or Fish.

To solve this, look around the room. Above the gate, you will see three symbols: A Snake and A fish, and in between them there will be some ruins instead of a symbol. If you look on the bottom floor, you will see the missing symbol, a snake. So set the pillars in that same order - from left to right - SNAKE, SNAKE, FISH. Then pull the level and the gate will open. If you got the symbols wrong, you will set up a dart trap. (SEE PICTURE BELOW FOR SOLUTION)

Enter a room that's filled with some treasures, including a "Thief" book that will increase your pickpocket skill. Go down the spiral stairway. You will be attacked by some rats in the bottom. Keep going, and you will reach some impassable cobwebs. Destroy them with your weapon.

There is a big wounded frostbite spider inside so be prepared. This battle can be tough. kill it. You will hear some cries for help from Arvel the Swift. He is trapped inside some spider web. Go talk to him. He will ask you to cut him free. Ask him where the golden claw is. He will tell you about how the claw can unlock the hall of stories and how he will show you its secret once you release him. If you ask him to hand over the claw first, he says he cannot move and to cut him out of there. Cut Arvel down.

But as soon as you do that, he starts running away! He is "Arvel the Swift" after all. Chase him and get the claw for him whatever it takes (in other words: kill him). Now some skeletons appear! kill them and loot for some gold.

Your new objective, now that you have the claw, is to find the secret of Bleak Falls Barrow. Head all the way west and then north. Watch for the trap on the floor that will cause a door to close on you and injure you. keep going north, then turn right. Bring up the map to see your destination.

Enter a room with some tombs in it. Skeletons will rise and attack you! kill the skeletons.

Next, cross the corridor with the two swinging pendulums in it. Time your approach carefully, as to not get hit by the pendulums. At the right moment, move through one pendulum and stop. Then clear the other two. Make sure to save before going through this obstacle.

Head down some stairs. Keep going through the corridors, and be prepared to fight a lot of skeletons on the way.

When you reach a room with a waterfall, activate the chain to the south to lift the gate. Head south along the water, then East towards the area with the light. Climb down into the room with the vapor, then climb up onto the exit to the North through the tunnel. Check your map to get some bearings.

Go west, then North again and you will find a room with some light, as well as an enemy skeleton. Kill it and open the door to the Bleak Falls Sanctum. Enter the sanctum and work your way through the tunnels, past another pendulum trap.

Head up some stairs and past a bridge, and arrive at an iron door. Open it, and cross the hallway to find a door with the dragon claw symbol! This is another PUZZLE

There is an inner ring, a middle ring, and a outer ring. each of them has a butterfly, bear, and owl symbol. Solution: Bring up your inventory and examine the gold claw. Look carefully. It has the order of the symbols on it! Put the owl in the inner ring, then the butterfly in the middle ring, then the bear in the outer ring. Activate the Keyhole using the gold dragon claw (If you are not carrying the claw, you missed a step. Read a few paragraphs back on how to get it). The door will open. (SEE PICTURE BELOW FOR SOLUTION)

Note: If the glyphs are not rotating, reset the puzzle by going back through the bridge and out the door, then come right back in. That will reset the puzzle and rings should turn again.

Climb the stairs and you will enter a big chamber. Head to the glowing blue glyphs. They will say "word of power, force unrelenting force". Reading the glyphs will uncover the secret of Bleak Falls Barrow and complete the objective, and will teach you a new spell, Unrelenting Force. This shout is powerful but requires dragon souls to unlock.

Turn to the chests behind to loot them, but you'll have to kill the Draugr Overlord that pops out of one of them first.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to kill and LOOT the Draugr Overlord. He carries a DRAGONSTONE, an ancient stone tablet with a map of dragon burial sites. If you are currently on the Bleak Falls Barrow quest from Farengar in Whiterun, this is the artifact you need to complete that quest. If you have not gotten that quest yet, you will be able to complete the quest immediately upon receiving it from Jarl and Farengar just by handing over this Dragonstone to them. Do NOT leave the sanctum without the Dragonstone!

After you have killed the overlord, loot the chest (there is some good items in there!) and exit the sanctum through the west, activating a lever to open the door. Once you are out, bring up the map, locate Riverwood and select it to fast travel to it.

Go to the Riverwood trader and give the claw to Lucan. This will complete the quest and Lucan will give you a nice reward of gold coins.

The guy you free from the webs has it, he will run but don't worry, if you can't kill him right away, the door trap will.. and you will find him lying down there, just loot his body and continue the path

Haha same happened to me, thought i was bugged. Just go back in there and get to the second part (blacksomething sanctum) and when you reach some rocky temple-like entrance notice that on the left there is a chest, an altar and a coffin - you`ll know that is it cuz when you approach the place some choir music kicks in. Well, behind them on the wall there are some strange markings you need to read in order for the miniboss to appear. Though it seems irrelevant to the dragonclaw quest you must finish it in order to turn in the q. :)

I also have a problem with completting this qst. after I get back to the village, all villagers bcome an enemy NPC and starting to attack me. I thought is that because a have some Nord equip or looted items, so i reload last save, stash the loot and travel to village. same problem, I cant return this qst because all in the village try to kill me on sight. whats going on? Its the first major qst i took and already buged or i did smthng wrong (after killing that lord with this mighty sword i got some skill or achievement from reading some inscription on a wall behind his thomb, is that the reason or what?)

I seem to be having the same problem as Ben. Funny that this hadn't happened on my first character. I restarted because I didn't like my perk progression. Anyway, the glitch seems to happen after killing the giant spider and cutting down Arvel. He runs off, and a slightly visible, yet indestructible spider web prevents chase. I've tried Flames, Sparks, Melee, Shield Bash, but nothing cuts through it.

Plz help, im in the dungeon now, but i dont have the golden claw, i cut the guy down but he ran away and i lost him. What shall i do to find him? Or how can i restart the quest? Very thankful for help!!!

I'm not sure if it works for other kinds of glitches, but I fixed being unable to loot the boss guy by leaving the dungeon and coming back in again. Perhaps it might work for other glitches like your invisible webs too.

'Course, you might not have to completely exit the dungeon. Maybe it just involves leaving the area/room. I donno for sure - I was a little flustered so I couldn't think of anything easier than leaving through the exit and having to run around the mountain back to the entrance. xD Simply going back to a previous area like the walkthrough said about the door with the rings might work too.

Also, for those of you who have townspeople attacking you, try going to your General Stats menu and scrolling down to Crime. If there's a number other than 0 listed for your bounty, you must have accidentally killed an innocent person (or an animal belonging to an innocent person) or gotten caught stealing. That's why they'd be attacking you.

Also also. If you lost Arvel, just make the Golden Claw quest active and follow the arrow that says 'Retrieve the Golden Claw' when you hover over it on the map. It will lead straight to Arvel, whether he's dead or not.

... Probably dead though since he runs straight into a room full of undead guys.

anyone who has the invisible wall problem, I ran into it on my fourth playthrough, after having never encountered it before. I backtracked through the dungeon, went outside and ran back to the spot past the spider and was able to get through no problem.

Pls somebody help me!
I cut Alver down, but let him ran away :S Now I'm at the three-ringed door and I need the claw. Unfortunatly, I quicksaved many times, and I can't get back to the part where I should kill Alver. What should I do now?

This isn't really important but there is more than 1 solution to the 2nd puzzle,
You at the side walls and you'll notice that the people go in this order:
Left to right:
1) One has wings like a bird
2) One has wings like a bug
3) One has legs like a mammal

You don't need to kill the guy for the claw, he will be killed by a trap the first time you see those skeleton like things. So, you don't need to chase him, so you can loot whatever until you reach his body.

I'm really stuck, because there is more than one door you use the claw on, but when I gave it back to Lucan it bugged out and didn't appear on the desk or in my inventory, I have no idea what to do now:| any suggestions?

For those who plan on skipping this and doing other questlines first, I recommend you don't. I did the thieves guild and dark brotherhood quests until I was level 18, and throughout the dungeon I had to fight at least 10 restless draugr, and the boss was a scourgelord- took me about 6 tries to finally beat him.

Trying to get the claw but cant get into the room with the spider. I can see the door but cant get in there is like a wal stopping me from going through the door now i got 2 quest in there and cant get in to kill the spider or kill the guy with the claw any ideas?

Hi, We killed the spider, killed Arvel, but don't seem to be able to retrieve the claw... it's not listed in his stuff when we try to loot. Thoughts? We killed him right at the web where he'd been stuck. He fell on his stomach with one hand stuck under him. Anyone know how to fix that?

Just turn right back around and keep walking into the seeming black mountainside. And if you still can't find it, then return to the entrance and just run through the whole dungeon again until you get to where you want.

Hello! Nice walk-through article. Now about the comments with help requests! ONE: You shouldn't have to kill Arvel the Swift, as he is clumsy enough or stupid enough to get himself killed by either the trap or the Draugr. Killing him, without it being self-defense, probably counts as a crime, and that may explain why some of you are being attacked by the Riverwood village people. (Pun intended.) That, or you stepped on a chicken and killed it. Or in my case, I accidently "stole" a horse, because I thought I could examine it, or talk to it, like with the boy's dog. (I've sometimes accidently taken objects because they were in my running path and collisions became either thefts or attacks, somehow.) SECOND: Not all of the pillars are meant to be turned. Some are merely clue pillars for those that do need to be turned. In once instance, if you're fast enough to arrive on time, you can witness a bandit's failed efforts and watch him die from the darts. Hopefully you can learn from the errors of his ways. Sometimes you'll arrive just in time to hear him die, if you're aren't looking at the right spot to witness his death. Note that this may be in another place though, not on this quest. THIRD: The walk-though didn't mention finding the body of "Steve", I think his name is. He's on a ledge in the troll chamber. To loot him, and learn why he's there, make like Bruce Wayne did in "The Dark Knight Rises", and go from ledge to ledge. Or use Magic to knock him down to your level. FOURTH: About the shops! Until you either invest with them, or become friends via a quest favor, items on display are labled as "Steal". Once they like you well enough, they all will allow you to take items for free, within reason. Get carried away and by accident you can steal something anyway, and loose your hard earned friendship. Depending on how well they like or love you, the reaction to such theft varies. Includes stealing the Golden Claw back! FIFTH: Getting people to like you well enough after such a quest, means that they can become loyal Followers, so why kill them?! The "DB" in this game doesn't have the same recruitment method as in the previous game. (The only "DB" quest I've done thus far, I did just by being helpful as usual. The first time I did it, I didn't know it was a "DB" quest! By the second time though, I knew it was, and that I had done the right thing the first time, just by coincidence.) SIXTH: Depending on how and when you do the two quests involved, really is a timesaver with the other one, because you will have the needed item, and won't need to return. SEVENTH: It took me a while to guess that it was a spider-web blocking my path in certain doorways. The first time, I thought it was a design flaw, and I used "Disable" to remove the barrier. Then it dawned on me, after enough times of setting Arvel free, that perhaps I could hack my way in, or use Flames. Yahoo! It worked! Ever since "Oblivion", I've wanted a way to remove webs, and this is sort of a compromise. Ditto with fire control. EIGHTH: That's all for now!

to Those being killed by the overlord you would be wise to learn how to heal yourself before tackling him. Get decent armor iron or steel and a good blade. Make sure you have full health and stamina then run at him.

Overlord is very weak to fire (I'm talking novice level flame! ...at level 3). Sadly I did not immediately loot his body on first quest when I got the claw (the hint for the order of the door is pictured on the claw shown in your quest journal--in Arvel's journal it says "palm of your hand" very punny indeed...but I digress. I figured that part out right away, but got this weird perma-crouch condition when in the barrows too which is relieved by sitting for a moment, then you can walk normally again. This game is FULL of glitches. I'm a Final Fantasy series player and I thought they were bad. I was WRONG. They are flawless compared to this nonsense! I'm at level 4 and about ready to chuck the whole thing into Lake Michigan!

Guys, read above comments, they will help your problems, but make sure that you lot the draugr overlords sword, its extremely helpful, especially if you plan on being a one handed specialist, it wrecks so many things so quickly.